Lecturer in Islamic Studies
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds
Co-Director of the Iqbal Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam

Postgraduate Community

Doctoral Research Student (2014-2018)
Islam, Secularism and the Public Sphere.

I am interested in questions around an Islamic conceptualization of secularism and what effects this would have on the notion of a shared Islamic public sphere. In particular, I will be looking at polysemy within the Quran and the transnational nature of the Islamic public sphere.

Doctoral Research Student (2013-2020)
Islamic Finance

Doctoral Student (2013-2020)
Qur’anic Studies

Thesis: ‘Jewish Anecdotes in Qur’anic Exegesis’.
My current research is an extension of my Masters by Research here at Leeds, but focuses more particularly on controversial narratives regarding the religious figures recognised in both the Biblical and Islamic lore as prophets. The fact that there is a definite connection between the religious texts and certain similarities has led me to focus on those narratives that exist in both texts. Without doubt narratives have always been a part of religious texts and have focused on many things, amongst them prophets, who have been portrayed significantly differently in the Abrahamic texts. The Qur’anic narratives are characteristically lucid, whereas the biblical counterparts are more detailed. As a result, some Muslim exegetes have resorted to the biblical texts to supplement the detail and there has been a variant level of appropriation and exclusion. My aim is to focus on a possible theory of appropriation/exclusion, including the nature of variance amongst the different Muslim theological schools. The aim is to better understand the relationship between the ancient texts and supplementary exegetical texts.

Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Muslim Cultures, Politics & Societies
School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (PRHS)

Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial Thought
School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds

Senior Lecturer in Classics and Deputy Head of School
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds

Partners

Muslim Family Law Centre

The Muslim Family Law Centre was developed out of a research project undertaken by its founder, Ridwaan Haris, who identified a need for a matrimonial service for couples where one of the couples was a Muslim and other was of a different faith. Given its no discriminatory approach to marriage and its aim to promote the institution of marriage, the Muslim Family Law Centre encourages inter-racial, interfaith and inter-sectarian marriages and is often seen as first choice for converts to Islam who wish to get married within the Islamic tradition. The organisation will look to expand its services, in partnership with other organisations, to provide the following:

Muslim Marriage Registration Scheme

Working towards the recognition of Muslim Marriages within the current UK legislation

Relationship counselling

Family Mediation

Muslim Divorces Tribunal

The Muslim Family Law Centre is committed to:

allowing Muslim women to contract their own marriage without the need of a walī

accepting gender neutral witnesses to a Muslim marriage

giving parity in divorce rights for spouses by incorporating the concept of ṭalāq al tafwīḍ in the marriage contract

Enabling the rights of the spouses to add other conditions to the marriage contract

For more information contact Ridwaan Haris at ridwaanharis@yahoo.co.uk

Based in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) is an intellectual movement and think tank focused on youth empowerment and the promotion of Muslim intellectual discourse.

Officially launched by Tariq Ramadan on the 12th of December 2009, IRF has taken great strides to engage in discussions, in Malaysia and beyond, to promote democracy, liberty and social justice.

IRF echoes the voice of reason and compassion, and is committed to liberating the Muslim mind from rigid orthodoxy and conservatism. IRF is also dedicated to the revival and reform of Islamic thought and appreciation in order to enable the Ummah to confront their present challenges more meaningfully towards the progress and happiness of all.

A platform for bringing together and putting forward the different elements of Critical Muslim studies as a field of thought and study. Critical Muslim Studies is not confined to a single discipline, or scholarly work, or methodological approach. It is an epistemological orientation that starts from the idea that the hierarchy between the west and the non-west is no longer assured. Among its themes, it includes a critique of Eurocentrism and positivism and an engagement with decolonial and postcolonial thinking.